The government has made getting rid of some old items so difficult and expensive that the easiest way to get rid of them is to throw them out beside a country road. I would never do that and that’s why I have several televisions, a printer, a computer, etc. (most of which I inherited when I bought my house and some left in my rental house which was improperly vacated). It would cost me several hundred dollars to get rid of this stuff, so it sits on a designated shelf in one of the barns.
> The government has made getting rid of some old items so difficult and expensive... <
Yep. A couple of years ago I replaced about 10 crumbling blocks from a retaining wall. I didn’t know what to do with the old blocks, so I called a local recycling center.
“Sure, we’ll take them,” the guy said. “It’ll cost you about $150.” When I asked why, he said the government requires that each block be tested for hazardous materials.
So I broke up the blocks with a sledge, and buried the pieces deep in my back yard. But yeah, I can see where someone less responsible would just dump them on the side of the road somewhere.
The law of unintended consequences at work.